NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said on June 5 that the Alliance had made it clear to the Georgian government that “even the perception” of politically motivated persecutions should be avoided while pursuing legal proceedings against former officials.

Asked about detention of former PM and secretary general of UNM party Vano Merabishvili, Rasmussen responded at a news conference that NATO was “following these developments with great concern.”

“Obviously we are not going to interfere with legal cases and the judiciary in Georgia,” he said at a news conference during which he summed up two-day NATO defense ministerial meeting, which also included a meeting with Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Alasania in frames of NATO-Georgia Commission.

“In today’s meeting with the Georgian Minister of Defense I made clear, and ministers made clear, that we take it for granted that the Georgian authorities will fully respect the fundamental principles of rule of law and will guarantee due process. We have made clear that even the perception of politically motivated arrests should be avoided and we expect Georgia to live up to those fundamental principles,” Rasmussen said.